Fake It 'Til You Make It

|04| The Mall

I awoke to sunlight streaming through cracked blinds, temporarily blinding me. Slowly, I sat up, attempting to shield my eyes. Glancing to my right, a I spotted a woman with golden curls and warm hazel eyes. A smile stretched across her lips and instantly, I flew off the bed and engulfed her in a hug.

Laughing and slightly off guard, she wrapped her own arms around me. "Good morning, Adalaide. How'd you sleep?"

I stepped away from her, a silly grin plastered to my face. "I slept great thanks to you, Melanie." I knew it seemed cheesy, but I instantly felt so welcomed by her. She was the mother a yearned for when my own couldn't act like one.

"I'm glad. Since it's a Sunday, you can just lounge around and relax. I just wanted to see how you were doing," she responded warmly.

My smile faltered as reality came crashing down, and I remembered all that had occurred in the mere span of twenty-four hours. My father's anger, my mother shipping me off, and finally, that this wasn't my house.

"Cheer up." She sighed, running a hand through her hair as she sat herself at the end of my bed. She patted the space next to her and like an obedient pup, I complied. Melanie then clasped her hands in her lap, an air of seriousness overtaking her. "I know what it's like."

Perplexed, I turned my head to look down at her. Not figuratively, of course, but literally, as she was shorter than me by about four inches. "What?"

She laughed, and the sweet melody echoed off the walls of the spacious room, the room I would now call my own. "What it's like to be rejected. Broken. To have a parent abandon you. Granted, my father left while my mother stayed with me." She gulped in a breath, her eyes shining. "My mother became an alcoholic, and it was like she wasn't even there.

"But I pressed through it. I had to tend to my younger sister and brother. I had to become the caretaker they needed but my parents refused to be." Her eyes held such raw emotion I nearly gasped. "I'm so sorry you have to go through this. No one deserves this. But I'll make sure you're a loved and treasured member of this family."

I sniffed, tears threatening to spill. For once, they were tears of joy and happiness. "Wow. I'm not sure what to say. Thank you so much. It means a lot."

Her smile crept back upon her face. "No problem."

"But, what about people at school or around the town? I mean, I've never been too social or hadpeople to like me." No one likes me. Even if I tried to fit in with the party crowd, they still hated me in the end.

"Fake it 'til you make it."

"Huh?" I responded, once again dumbfounded.

She laughed, a light but hearty one. "Have you ever heard of that saying? 'Fake it 'til you make it?'"

Slowly, I nodded, confused of how that pertained to my situation.

"That's the secret. Don't let people see that they have power over you. Get in with the populars, the nerds, or whoever. Just keep telling yourself and others you're happy until you are."

A lightbulb dinged in my brain, a brilliant idea formulating. It was almost like a light in the dark, a beckon of hope. If I could just fake it, even for a little while, I could finally be popular. I could have friends. I didn't have to be Adalaide, the frail, insecure, broken girl. Not anymore. This time, I'd succeed in popularity.

"Thanks again," I smiled, rising from the bed. I caught my reflection in the mirror across the room and cringed, noticing mascara under my eyes and my long hair a tangled mess. It reminded me of my worse days. "I better clean myself up."